Erkan, Hanife, and their children Bengisu & Aybuke Beren live in Izmit-Kocaeli City, Turkey.
I have seen many pictures that Erkan has taken. He has a wide range of subjects, but I particularly like his nature pictures. He seems to enjoy this pastime very much.
Written By Duane Duff, Canada, 2006.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

There was a stand decicated completely to three Human being Heritages of Allonai, Hasankeyf & Zeugma, which were under great threat of disappearing and nonexistence. They are as if doomed to totally disappearance. What a pity! Is not it so! I have learnt that there was a group called as Allianoi Girisim Gurubu [Initiative Group for Allianoi], which is spending endless efforts rescuing those Human beings’ Heritages.

I openly and by heartily would like to express my thanks each members of Allianoi Girisim Gurubu [Initiative Group for Allianoi] and congratulate their endless and limitless efforts for saving all those World Heritages.

Allianoi: Pasa Ilicasi. [Ancient Greek: [Aλλιανοί]: ] It is an ancient spa settlement, dating predominantly from the Roman Empire period, 2nd century B.C., situated near Bergama [ancient Pergamon] in Turkey's Izmir City. The site is located 18 kilometers to the northeast of Bergama, on the road to the town of Ivrindi. It is just inside the projected reservoir of the Yortanli Dam, the construction of which was recently completed. The dam has not yet been activated due to the ongoing discussion in Turkey in regards to preserving Allianoi, which would otherwise be inundated and disappear upon the dam's activation.

One particularity of Allianoi is its being a very recent discovery. It had been mentioned once by the 2nd century orator and medicinal writer Aelius Aristides’s Hieroi Logoi [ίεροί λόγοι: Sacred Tales] (III.1), one of the key sources for our knowledge on the science of healing as it was understood at that time. No other writer of antiquity nor any epigraphic finding refer to Allianoi.

Hasankeyf: [Greek: Kiphas [κήφας: Steep Rock]; Turkish: Hasankeyf [from Arabic rootd words [Hisn Kayfa] to Ottoman to Turkish. It means “Rock Castle”]; Kurdish: Hesenkeyf Latin: Cepha; Aramaic and Arabic: Hisn Kayfa; Syriac: Heskîf] is a city located along the Tigris River in the Batman Province of southeastern Anatolia. It is an ancient city, with roots going back 10,000 years. It was declared a natural conservation area by Turkey in 1981.

The Romans had built a fortress on the site and the city became a bishopric under the Byzantine Empire. It was conquered by the Arabs, in circa. 640, who built a bridge over the Tigris River. The city was successively ruled by the Artukids and Ayyubids. The city was captured and sacked by the Mongols in 1260. Following the Ottoman ascendancy established by Selim I in the region in the early 16th century, the city became part of the Ottoman Empire during Sultan Süleyman I's campaign of Irakeyn [the two Iraqs, e.g. Arabian and Persian] in 1534, at the same time as Diyarbakir, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.

Zeugma: [Greek: Ζεύγμα: Yoke] is an ancient city of Commagene; currently located in the Gaziantep City of Turkey. It is a historical settlement which is considered among the four most important settlement areas under the reign of the kingdom of Commagene. It was named for the bridge of boats, or Zeugma, which crossed the Euphrates there.

The ancient city of Zeugma was originally founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 BC. King Seleucus almost certainly named the city Seleucia after himself; whether this city is, or can be, the city known as Seleucia on the Euphrates or Seleucia at the Zeugma is disputed. The population in the city at its peak was approximately 80,000.

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